Afternoon Baseball

Well, he had some adventures in left field, but that's to be expected. He now played there twice in his professional career.
As long as Soriano realizes that he's not being moved because the Nationals want to embarass him or think he's not a good player, he'll be OK. The Nats are moving him to make their team better and better utilize the athletic gifts that he clearly possesses. Jose Vidro couldn't play a good left, but he can play a little second base.
The readyness with which Soriano has accepted the inevitable says that the Nats did a terrible job of communicating with him until this week. That's unacceptable, and surely will be in the minds of free agents. Just one more question mark added to the general uncertainty with which baseball has surrounded this franchise.

Anyways, the comments were flying as I was doing a lot of sleeping Thursday, trying to shake this cold and achyness I've had lately.
I'll accept a detente on Wilkerson-Soriano, as there's good arguments for both sides, and both have a lot prove this year, obviously. I'd like to see both doing well, but I still think it'll be a bigger accomplishment if Soriano maintains his power, as he's moving to a ballpark not known for its friendliness to hitters. Of course, it's likely I may be too big an intangibles fan of Wilkerson. We'll see.

A-Rod-Soriano
Once again, I'm stunned we're having this debate, although this comment, while in essence correct, is pretty harsh. Fans get frustrated when players leave. It's understandable to look back, especially when the Yankees have fallen short the past few years.
But on Soriano-A-Rod, I'm just not seeing how the Yanks have too many superstars, or why A-Rod needs to just focus on getting on base and not driving runners in. Purely on economics, if he's getting $25 million, he'd better do everything. He's better than Soriano in every single aspect of the game -- period. Even in steals, A-Rod has stolen 49 times (in 59 tries) as a Yankee. Soriano only has 48 steals (in 55 tries) in the last two years.
But I think bumfromjersey's objection is to the acquisition in the first place, and a matter of team chemistry being affected -- as in the Yankees need players of x amount of styles, and A-Rod is redundant in his role of superstar while Soriano filled some sort of X-Factor role.
If we're looking to dump a guy filling A-Rod's role, why not Giambi? Or Sheffield? Or Jeter -- A-Rod could play a better shortstop, and mediocre third basemen with heart (Brosius) are a dime a dozen (Joe Randa, for instance). A-Rod's better than all of them, and younger. Just because he was the latest to arrive to the Yankees doesn't put him first on the chopping block.
So it's an understandable idea of not wanting the deal to happen. However, since that ship has long since sailed, all that remains are platitudes of things such as "A-Rod is great but is just overkill in my opinion," and "they have so many guys who can punch runners in but very few who will accept a role of just getting base."
Both are possible arguments -- but not with Soriano being the better option.

"Overkill" reminds me of Red Sox fans who complain about the Yankees "buying" championships when they have the second-highest payroll. This isn't a basketball team having two All-Star guards and trading their only big man for a third ball-hogging guard. This isn't destroying chemistry through a fire sale or trading the team captain. This was getting the best player in baseball. When that opportunity arises, you adjust the team to get him on it, not the other way around. The Yanks, in switching him to third, had their cake and ate it too.
And secondly, Soriano doesn't accept the role of getting on base. His on-base percentage is terrible. He bats at the top of the lineup, so he's going to be making 400-500 outs a year for you. And while A-Rod tries way, way too hard to be a good guy, Soriano has proven over the past few years that he's pretty much a SOB who can't be changed in attitude or approach to the game.

Let me say again, I think that Soriano was a player worth keeping, and incredibly exciting to watch. But a better opportunity came along. And that's all she wrote.